Two or more people traveling together can travel on a transcon flight for $59 each and to Florida for $39 each.

I really don't get this. Why are the fares so amazingly low? Sure, the sale fare must be booked by Nov. 21 and travel completed from Nov. 30-Feb. 15, but isn't JetBlue going to lose money from this? I'm sure this'll spark demand. I sincerely hope B6 knows what they're doing. I'm sure they know what's going to happen but maybe I don't see it.

This is absolutely ridiculous. I would have never expected that you can get an airline ticket which is about 15x faster than a bus ticket or train ticket cheaper! This really pisses me off. Delta, American, and United will hurt from this greatly. Why were LCC's ever started?

The LCC's were started because of their very low costs and they can charge low fares. The problem is that these LCC's free loaded on the hard work of the legacy carriers. These pioneer legacy carriers worked decade after decade to develop the systems and infrastructures that has made our current airline system so great. The legacies incurred tremendous costs (including high labor) to support and maintain these systems and infrastructures. The LCC's have standard and efficient low cost operations that can support these low fares and this is certainly great for the traveling public but disasterous for the legacy carriers.

I always see people saying how unfair it is that the legacies can go into BK to reorganize to try to get on an even playing field with the LCC's. But how fair is it that the LCC's are allowed to swoop in with their low costs and cannabalize the airline industry. This is a vicious cycle that must be allowed to happen if businesses like Jet Blue are allowed to commence and exist.

I'm not sure if this is fair or unfair free enterprise but I guess this depends on which side of the airline industry you are on. Either way, I would imagine this is the best way to protect as many people as possible and to keep the airline business moving in the right direction.

Quoting JetBluefan1 (Reply 4):This shouldn't piss you off. In the business world, the strongest prevails. JetBlue, which has lower costs than the legacy carriers, will prevail in this case.

They might have low costs, but B6's costs are not so low that they could make money charging fares of $0.024 a mile on JFK-LGB or $0.032 a mile on BOS-FLL. The goal with for this price is not make money, its just to put butts into seats that otherwise would have flown empty. What we really know is how many seats are being sold at this price. If it only a few seats a day, then no real biggie. But if they have all the seats or a majority of the seats at this price, they are probably bleeding money. Even though B6 has low CASM, its not low enough to make money on these fares.

when you said, "I'm sure this will spark demand," you answered your own question right there.

just basically JetBlue getting some buzz about their route offerings. not only that, but when they go to the website to book their holiday travel flights, while they might not find the fare they are looking for, they'll already be at the website and see what fares *ARE* being listed and perhaps go ahead and book anyway because they still find it to be a good deal.

free advertising is always the best.

[Edited 2005-11-12 18:46:06]

if assumptions could fly, airliners.net would be the world's busiest airport

Quoting Luv2fly (Reply 1):Except for the Holiday period during this time, this time period has very light loads to say the least.

Not Boston-South Florida. Demand in that market peaks in late February, not even near Christmas.

Quoting InTheSky74 (Reply 9):
It makes more sense than the Spirit $9 fare sale - that's just yelling "we're going out of business soon".

Haha. Okay, whatever you say. It's a simple fare sale, and the amount of $9 fares available was incredibly minimal. Spirit isn't going anywhere. Anybody remember Spirit's 9/11/02 sale? Every ticket was free. An expensive promotion, but like the $9 fares, it gets the word out very fast. The money an airline loses in running ridiculous sales like a $9 fare sale is usually more than made up for in the free advertising they get. Newspapers nationwide published blurbs "Spirit Airlines sells $9 tickets to the Caribbean". Not only did this give Spirit name recognition, but it got people to say "hey, this airline is now flying to the Caribbean". The amount of money they lost selling those fares is probably less than the amount of placement they got in periodicals and other news sources:

And that is just three examples. Some people don't realize that fare sales often times have a second purpose, and that selling cheap fares not only get passengers in seats to experience the product and perhaps return in the future, but it is usually cheaper to sell $9 seats than take out ads in a newspaper.

Funny how the legacies lived, thrived and turned record profits with Southwest as a major force. Additionally, carriers like PSA, AirCal, America West, Morris Air, etc. all flew in competition with legacy carriers.

Quoting Sspontak (Reply 6):The problem is that these LCC's free loaded on the hard work of the legacy carriers.

Excuse me? The legacies free loaded on the frozen fares of the regulated era that were anti-consumer and anti-business all at the same time. LCCs built themselves up from nothing and thrived even when legacies practiced anti-competitive business.

Quoting Sspontak (Reply 6): These pioneer legacy carriers worked decade after decade to develop the systems and infrastructures that has made our current airline system so great.

You think the legacy carriers did that? It was the US Government who did most of the infrastructure building, particularly during WWII, along with local flying clubs, municipalities, private individuals, etc. In fact, the closest you get to airlines developing infrastructure are airports like BUR that were built to support aircraft manufacturers

Quoting InTheSky74 (Reply 9):It makes more sense than the Spirit $9 fare sale - that's just yelling "we're going out of business soon".

Spirit, as a private company, does not have to report earnings publically, but all indications point to them being profitable

Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 11):And that is just three examples. Some people don't realize that fare sales often times have a second purpose, and that selling cheap fares not only get passengers in seats to experience the product and perhaps return in the future, but it is usually cheaper to sell $9 seats than take out ads in a newspaper.

See everyone, listen to Mark. Not only did Spirit generate its own publicity while filling seats that would go unfilled, they also got free news coverage that they would have otherwise had to pay for.

Ryanair, easyJet, Sterling and other Euro-LCCs make quite a lot of money by having all their refreshments for sale only, incl coffee, tea and still water, while US LCCs offer hot and cold beverages and snacks for free (or included in the ticket)...

Do US LCCs consider the cost of offering these refreshments so low that it's worth it or will we see an end to free refreshments on US carriers as well?

Quoting N1120A (Reply 12):Excuse me? The legacies free loaded on the frozen fares of the regulated era that were anti-consumer and anti-business all at the same time. LCCs built themselves up from nothing and thrived even when legacies practiced anti-competitive business.

It was the government that regulated the fares, not the airlines. The airlines lobbied for deregulation which benefited the airlines and the public. That was almost 30 years ago, a long time before the new generation LCC popped up.

Quoting N1120A (Reply 12):You think the legacy carriers did that? It was the US Government who did most of the infrastructure building, particularly during WWII, along with local flying clubs, municipalities, private individuals, etc. In fact, the closest you get to airlines developing infrastructure are airports like BUR that were built to support aircraft manufacturers

The legaciers did contribute their fair share to these projects along with their participation (and financially) in research and development and technology. These LCC's certainly have gotten a free ride which is absolutely understandable but gives them an unfair advantage. That is why the legacies need the ability to re-organize to be competitive whether in BK or not.

It should be interesting to see the LCC's cost rise as they expand with different fleets and the employees want their fair share of the pie as the legacy costs go down.

Quoting Aa757first (Reply 13):Quoting Sspontak (Reply 6):
The problem is that these LCC's free loaded on the hard work of the legacy carriers.

Please give examples.

AAndrew

Participation with aircraft development and facility development
Participation in all airline related technologies including air traffic control
Lobbying and pioneering with opening up the world in the development of passenger, airmail and international routes

Don't fool yourself to think that the government did it all without the huge support of the legacy airlines.

You might want to read up on airline history. Incredibly interesting and you might have a new respect for the legacies and understand why they just won't go away without a fight.

Quoting Alitalia744 (Reply 10):For the legacy-supporters, I'll be having champagne at my apartment on that day!

Seriously, how can you say that. I mean, we aren't talking about Southwest or EasyJet or Ryanair (of which I am not a supporter of)... This is JetBlue, they arent selling the same old seats for lower prices. They have been a majour innovator and sparked majour changes in the industry in just 5 short years (see: song and soon Delta transcons, ptvs on Frontier, ptvs on WestJet) arguably, without B6 none of this would have happened. And then we'd be sitting in the same old boring seat twiddiling our thumbs for five hours on our transcon until we arrived. Whether or not you want to admit it B6 has been a huge positive force in the industry and I think ultimately made the legacies think about customer service for once. Morale: don't wish failure to someone who clearly has a better product but instead wish failure to those who think it's okay to treat their passengers like cattle.

Quoting Evan767 (Reply 3):This is absolutely ridiculous. I would have never expected that you can get an airline ticket which is about 15x faster than a bus ticket or train ticket cheaper! This really pisses me off. Delta, American, and United will hurt from this greatly. Why were LCC's ever started?

No one said that the so called legacy carriers have to match any fare sale being offered.

Quoting CLEfan (Reply 7):They might have low costs, but B6's costs are not so low that they could make money charging fares of $0.024 a mile on JFK-LGB or $0.032 a mile on BOS-FLL. The goal with for this price is not make money,

Not all of those seats are going to be sold for $59 or $39 one way.

Quoting JetBluefan1 (Reply 23):As far as the fare sale, I've decided that it's a good idea. It once again sparks some buzz around JetBlue and it's during the slowest time of the year.

LCC's have made it affordable for many more americans to fly. I don't see how you can hate the LCC's, when

1. They offer lower fares 95% of the time
2. They pay there employees (WN is a good example) as good if not better than the legacies.
and 3. They offer as much if not more than most the legacies (FL with XM, B6 with XM and PTV's, WN with free peanuts/sodas and snack packs on longer flights with a generous seat pitch).

Next flights: Southwest MSP-DEN-BOI; BOI-PHX-MSP

25 Nkops
: Whatever!!! Like MAH4546 said, it is merely a marketing tool to get name recognition out, it's not like all seats were $9.. It obviously worked since

26 Jumbojet
: I dont care how cheap the fare is, i wont fly a LCC. my choice is to fly Delta metal even if it means paying more for the ticket. There are many, man

27 Ikramerica
: No, some was. Not most. Obviously. Just like when a car is given away by a dealership or a free ipod every hour or some other promotion by a big reta

28 Mariner
: I repeat, most of that was done by Pan Am. "That" being: As far as US airlines are concerned - which is what is under discussion here - Pan Am opened

29 Aa757first
: Actually, Legend was the first airline to offer DirectTv. Not jetBlue. Actually, we would probably have a meal. AAndrew

30 Iowaman
: Totally your opinion, and I respect that. If it wasn't for LCC's fares would be much higher in the first place.

31 ODwyerPW
: N1120A, good reply. thanks for helping to set the record straight.